When a brand decides to celebrate its heritage, it’s easy to land in the cliché zone: sepia tones, slow piano, dusty archive shots. But with its “Merci, Adele und Dutti” film, Migros has shown how you can turn centennial storytelling into a vibrant, cinematic experience that still serves as strategic advertising.
From the first frame, the spot doesn’t feel like a “museum piece”. Instead, it leaps us into 1925 Zurich, where founder-husband and wife Gottlieb and Adele Duttweiler drive a Ford TT mobile shop into the city. The props team has done its homework: vintage clothing, real old-school sales gear, even a correctly weather-worn sales van—all deliberately built to look lived-in and raw. Through this level of production care, the brand signals that its story is as authentic as its promise.
What’s remarkable is how the story is told without a single spoken word. Every expression, gesture and frame is calibrated to communicate resilience, innovation and partnership. When the young sales-truck scene on Münsterbrücke unravels—bags split, pasta and rice scattered—it’s a visual metaphor that even revolutionising retail has a messy, human beginning. You don’t hear the founders speak; you see their faces, body language, and environment. That restraint adds elegance, making the ad feel more like short film than commercial.
From an advertising-strategy standpoint, this campaign ticks a number of boxes. First, it positions Migros not merely as a retailer, but as a cultural institution with purpose—“we changed Switzerland, Switzerland changed us”. That kind of narrative builds brand gravitas. Second, by acknowledging competitors (“thanks”), Migros demonstrates confidence—and disarms adversarial perceptions. Third, the high production value sends a signal: this company invests in its story, and by extension invests in the relationship with the consumer.
For advertisers and marketers working today, there are lessons here:
- Think historical not as backward-looking but as foundation-looking. Heritage becomes credibility when you make it vivid, not dusty.
- Authenticity lives in the details. The wardrobe, props, location—everything communicates value and care.
- Silence can be powerful. Visual storytelling invites the viewer to fill the gaps, to lean in.
- Positioning the campaign around gratitude (to customers, competitors, society) flips the usual “we’re the best” tagline into something more relational and humble.
From the logistics side, it’s impressive how the brand treated a 90-second spot like a feature-film production: a major costume staging, scene-by-scene historical recreation, set planning, location lockdowns. This is not mere “content marketing”; it’s premium brand theatre. And in a crowded digital landscape where many ads barely feel different from posts, that premium finish stands out.
It also opens the way for layered media execution: the 90-second film is the hero, but the campaign extends via posters, historical image archives, references to legacy channels and nostalgia. That gives the story multiple touchpoints. On social channels, you can tease the making-of, highlight the founders as personalities, drop behind-the-scenes stills. The underlying message stays consistent: heritage, innovation, gratitude.
Of course, the fundamental task is still to connect this to the consumer. Migros is reminding us of its origins—mobile stores, innovation from scratch—and effectively saying: we’ve been transforming retail for a century, and we’ll keep evolving. For younger audiences this may translate into “you can trust us”, for long-term customers maybe “we’ve been part of your story”. For competitors it positions Migros as confident but collaborative.
In short: this campaign blends brand history with modern execution, using filmic production values to elevate a supermarket brand into story-brand territory. For those of us in advertising, whether crafting heritage campaigns or building brand narratives, Migros’s approach provides a blueprint: dig deep into your origin, treat it with respect, build real craft into production, and extend the narrative across media with a consistent theme of authenticity and relation.
If you’re reviewing your next brand-story campaign, ask: are we celebrating because we were good? Or because our story still matters, still shapes us, still connects with people? Because as Migros shows, century-old stories aren’t relics—they’re assets. Use them well, and consumers will lean in, not glance away.